Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince

[EFerrari]

“There are no security issues,” says Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health, reporting from the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince in Haiti, where 1,000 people are in need of operations. Lyon said the reports of violence in the city have been overblown by the media and have affected the delivery of aid and medical services.

snip

I think, you know, the singing and the , I know, is clear to many, certainly anyone who has followed Haiti and cared about this special country. One thing that I think is really important for people to understand is that misinformation and rumors and, I think at the bottom of the issue, racism has slowed the recovery efforts of this hospital. Security issues over the last forty-eight hours have been our—quote “security issues” over the last forty-eight hours have been our leading concern. And there are no security issues. I’ve been with my Haitian colleagues. I’m staying at a friend’s house in Port-au-Prince. We’re working for the Ministry of Public Health for the direction of this hospital as volunteers. But I’m living and moving with friends. We’ve been circulating throughout the city until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning every night, evacuating patients, moving materials. There’s no UN guards. There’s no US military presence. There’s no Haitian police presence. And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/doctor_misinformation_and_racism_have_frozen

Audio, video, transcript at link

[omega minimo]

1. Disinformers even bothered to UnRec this

[EFerrari]

2. It didn't matter. As a community, DU prefers fact.

We get into each other's hair but at bottom, we want the information. :toast:

[omega minimo]

7. It never matters

:spray: :rofl:

but ya'll better take that hairy bottom talk over to the Lounge :yoiks:

[whistler162]

10. Probably the same poster that threadjacked this

thread complaining about unrec'rs!

[omega minimo]

13. unfortunately

you don't know :wtf: yer yappin about

[galileoreloaded]

3. He needs to shut his big, fat, healing, direct action mouth, and leave it to the bureaucrats.

One good thing that came from this though, is that my HS senior now has strict instructions in an active shooter scenario (or ANY life or death situation) at his school to use his OWN judgment whether to stay put in a lockdown or egress. You get a clear shot out, you take it, cause I have lost any and all faith in the system to govern effectively. Hell, I don't trust the system to cook a pancake breakfast without adding a corporate sponsor, melamine, or robbing the goddamn cashbox.

Myself and my attn'y will back him to the limits of my ability to pay.

We are well and truly on our own, until the no-bid contracts can be awarded, the soldiers inserted, and the lucrative job of cleanup can begin.

This message sponsored by a rational human with their own instincts and their own ability to accurately assess their surroundings.

[EFerrari]

4. :-)

[TxRider]

5. The Navy task force head

Says they have seen no violence at all, only welcoming.

That there are a few pockets of violence but that the U.N. forces that were already there are dealing with them well.




Keen clarified the boundaries of the role that U.S. troops will play. He stressed that their priority is to distribute aid in partnership with other agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"My mission is to provide humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and security in order to execute delivery of that ," he said. He added that the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti remains primarily in charge of security and that U.N. troops who had been successful in significantly reducing gang activity prior to the earthquake now are at work to contain pockets of violence that have cropped up in the disaster’s chaotic aftermath.

Keen said he has not witnessed what some media reports characterize as a rising tide of violence.

"All the places that U.S. forces have gone thus far have been very calm,” he said. “In fact, they've been overtly welcoming. People have been very orderly, and they’ve been very appreciative of all the aid that they've been given."

Looking ahead, Keen said, he counts water purification units in the next group of priorities. Sixteen units had arrived yesterday, with five more due today. Opening the ports also is a critical need, he said.

"We've got to have other means to get cargo in here and take pressure off the airport, " he explained.

Assessment teams have determined that both the main port and a fuel pier are inoperable. Keen said he expects to have one of the ports operating with limited capacity by the end of the week, possibly using landing craft.

[EFerrari]

6. Thank you, TxRider.

[Rebubula]

8. And yet...

...Anderson Coopers report just the opposite.

Some places are calm...some not.

[EFerrari]

9. Not really. This doctor is talking very carefully about his hospital.

So, no, the report isn't opposite in any way.

[malaise]

11. Yep any are reacting to stereotypes

They know nothing about Caribbean people. The truth is any are really terrified of black people. Now that is the classic inversion of historical reality isn't it!! :rofl::

[flyarm]

12. K&R